The BBC contemplates procedural changes

The Hutton report’s strong indictment will see the BBC overhauling its editorial and complaints procedures.

A seven-month confrontation between the British Broadcasting Corporation and the British Government reached its denoument when the judge inquiring into the David Kelly episode, Lord Hutton, gave his report. He exonerated the government and made strong indictments against the BBC, leading to its chairman resigning.Meanwhile the corporation had already begun reviewing its own editorial procedures.

THE HUTTON REPORT

Key points:

Here are the major points from Lord Hutton`s report into events surrounding the death of weapons expert Dr David Kelly.

ON DR KELLY`S DEATH

Dr Kelly took his own life and no third party was involved

No-one involved could have contemplated that Dr Kelly would take his own life as a result of the pressures he felt

Dr Kelly was not an easy man to help or to whom to give advice

Can not be certain of factors that drove Dr Kelly to suicide

Dr Kelly probably killed himself because of extreme loss of self-esteem and would have seen himself as being publicly disgraced

Dr Kelly would have felt his job was at risk and that his life`s work could beundermined

ON ANDREW GILLIGAN`S REPORT

Andrew Gilligan`s report that Downing Street "probably knew" the 45-minute claim in its Iraq dossier was wrong was a grave allegation and attacked the integrity of the government and the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC)

The 45-minute claim in the Iraq dossier was based on a report received by theintelligence services that they believed to be reliable

Whether or not that source was subsequently shown to be unreliable, the central allegation made by Andrew Gilligan in his BBC report was unfounded

The allegation that the reason the claim was not in the original draft of the dossier was because it was only from one source and the intelligence service did not believe it to be true, was also unfounded

It is not possible to reach a definite conclusion as to what Dr Kelly said to MrGilligan

Satisfied Dr Kelly did not say to Mr Gilligan that the government knew the 45-minute claim was wrong or that intelligence agencies did not believe it wasnecessarily true

ON THE BBC

Editorial system at BBC was defective in allowing Mr Gilligan`s report to go toair without editors seeing a script

BBC management failed to make an examination of Mr Gilligan`s notes of theinterview with Dr Kelly

There was a defect in the BBC`s management system relating to the way complaints were investigated

BBC governors failed to investigate Mr Gilligan`s actions properly

ON THE PREPARATION OF THE DOSSIER

The Prime Minister`s desire to have as compelling a dossier as possible may have subconsciously influenced the JIC to make the language of the dossier stronger than they would otherwise have done

The JIC and its chairman, John Scarlett, were concerned to ensure that the contents of the dossier were consistent with the intelligence available to the JIC

The dossier could be said to be "sexed up" if this term is taken to mean it wasdrafted to make the case against Saddam as strong as intelligence permitted

But in the context of Mr Gilligan`s report, "sexed up" would be understood to mean the dossier was embellished with items of intelligence known or believed to be false or unreliable. This allegation is unfounded

ON THE NAMING OF DR KELLY

There was no underhand government strategy to name Dr Kelly

It was necessary to have Dr Kelly before the foreign affairs committee

If details that a civil servant had come forward to volunteer he had met Mr Gilligan had been withheld, the government would have been accused of a cover-up

The Government`s belief that Dr Kelly`s name was bound to come out was wellfounded

MoD did take some steps to help Dr Kelly once his name was made public

The MoD was at fault in the way it dealt with Dr Kelly once his name was made public

MoD failed to tell Dr Kelly his name would be made public

Dr Kelly`s exposure to press interest was only one of the issues putting him under stress

OTHER ISSUES

The publishing of leaked extracts of the report in the Sun newspaper was deplorable

Investigative and legal action is being considered over the leak

Final submissions to the inquiry from parties involved are being made public

Indeed, the first acknowledgment that changes were neededcame almost a fortnight before the scientist`s death.

On Sunday 6 July last year, the BBC`s chairman Gavyn Daviescalled a special meeting of its board of governors to discussAlastair Campbell`s allegations of bias in the BBC`s overall Iraqwar coverage and, specifically, Andrew Gilligan`s Today reportabout the government`s intelligence dossier.

Afterwards, Mr Davies issued a statement, saying the board supported the decision to broadcast the Gilligan story but alsointended to review the rules under which BBC journalists wereallowed to write for newspapers.

It was Gilligan`s article in the Mail on Sunday, naming Mr Campbellas the person who had ordered the "sexing up" of the dossier,that - in a famous phrase - gave the story "booster rockets".

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Robust investigation

The BBC has also announced it is strengthening its complaints process and the editorial procedures designed to ensureprogrammes comply with its guidelines.

Both had been criticised by some of those giving evidence to LordHutton.

The head of the BBC World Service, Mark Byford, has beenpromoted to deputy director general and put in charge of bothcomplaints and compliance procedures.

Reporting to him will be a new controller of complaints, headingan enlarged department, and the controller of editorial policy,whose department already deals with programmes before theyare broadcast.

But senior figures have made it clear they do not believe the BBCshould withdraw from investigative journalism, as some people - including more than one BBC governor - have suggested.

They say one reason for these changes is to ensure suchinvestigations are as robust as possible.

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